PITTSBURGH (93.7 the Fan) There are plenty of reasons the Steelers lost to, oops, tied the Lions, 16-16 Sunday afternoon – reasons in all three phases, really – but fans especially love to second-guess offensive coordinators.
Actually, it's not even second-guessing since I know many of you are screaming as soon as the Steelers come out of the huddle and you see an empty set on 3rd-and-2 or, worse, 3rd-and-1. I won't get you started on those WR screens. I'm sure it's NFSW – and really should be not said at home, either, at least not in mixed company.
But, since his team had won four straight games, Steelers Offensive Coordinator Matt Canada wasn't receiving a ton of heat since his play-calling hadn't cost the team any wins. When the Steelers failed to win Sunday, however, the wolves started howling.
Twice, the Steelers failed to score from inside the 10-yard line on first-and-goal, settling for 6 points rather than 14. The first failure was tough since Najee Harris' 7-yard TD was negated by a highly-debatable holding call against LT Dan Moore. It's worth noting that Harris had run the ball on 5 straight plays from the 33-yard line into the end zone. Pushed back to the 17-yard line, it's understandable they threw 3 passes before kicking the field goal
The second failure is the one that still has fans steamed. First-and-goal from the 5 and Canada apparently forgot what Harris had done 40-miniutes earlier since Najee never touched the ball. Not on Canada was Mason Rudolph missing a wide-open Ray-Ray McCloud on third down which should have been a TD. But for Canada to not involve his most dynamic player on goal-to-go from the 5-yard line borders on derelict of duty.
This brings us back to a simmering, season-long topic. Other than a few back-up quarterbacks, the least-used-highest paid offensive player in the NFL is fullback Derek Watt who was on the field for just 6 of a whopping 87 offensive plays. Zach Banner, finally fit for play, didn't get a single offensive snap. So why not give Harris a fullback more often? Why not use the road-grader, Banner, as an extra tight end on occasion?
As a public service, I put that question to Canada this week. CAUTION – What follows is 58 seconds of classic coach-speak.
"Well, I think you look at the game, we use those things when we can when we think the match-up serves us. We've got 11 guys on the field, they put 11 guys on the field as well; we're trying to find those match-ups. Who we take off the field, who they take off the field, again, every game that doesn't get the result we want we can all look at those things and talk about it. We obviously ran the ball, we had a 100-yard rusher so we ran the ball on Sunday but we didn't do anything well enough to win the game and I'm not changing my stance on that, that's all that matters is winning the game. So, more or less, you know obviously the overtime skewed the balance quite a bit, if you look at that, but we ran some RPOs which in a sense are runs so we were run blocking and doing some things like that.
"I don't know if I have the answer for you (but) we're trying. I've talked about Watt a lot, I've talked about a lot of guys a lot I like, all of our players, I believe in all our players and each week we're doing our best to put a match-up together that works. Four weeks prior to that we did a good enough job to win; last week we didn't do a good enough job so I take ownership of that."
Did you get all that? Yeah, I know. I have a bit of a headache myself.
I will give Canada credit for providing some insight; that while he won't answer to any of us, he does have to answer to others at the Rooney UPMC facility. "I'm never going to get into a specific play, what happened, if it was right," Canada said meaning the media and, by extension, you fans. "Inside this building we will talk and we will critique. Everybody knows what needs to happen. We didn't score touchdowns and we have to score touchdowns so I take that on me. I've got to make sure I do a better job."
A little help from his players wouldn't hurt Canada. Neither would a dose of common sense. And keep this in mind - the LA Chargers have the worst run defense in the NFL. Just sayin'.
